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THE 



DANGER AND HOPE 



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THE A M E Rl .C A N PEOPLE: 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE DAY OF THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE' -; 
STATE OF NEW-YORK. ' 



BY GARDINER SPRING, 

Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Cliurch, in the cit)' of New -York. 



i^ 



NEW-YORK : 

JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, lU NASSAU -STREET. 
A. D. 1813. 



THE 



DANGER AND HOPE 



OP 



THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE DAY OF THE ANNUAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE 
STATE OF NEW-YORK. 



y 



BY GARDINER SPRING, 

Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, in the city of New-York. 






.\'^\'^'^'^ \ 



NEW-YORK : 

JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 N A S S AU- STR E E T . 
A. D. 1843. 



EE 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by 

JOHN F. TROW, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southeru 

District of New- York. 



A DISCOURSE, 



Psalm 46 : 1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help 
in trouble. 

Every man is responsible not only for what he 
says and does, but for what he neglects to say and 
do. God and his fellow-men hold him responsible ; 
and though he himself may scarcely survive either 
the good he implores, or the evil he deprecates, he 
is responsible to those who come after him. 

There are great political axioms that are inde- 
pendent of party interests, and alike relevant to all 
parties. While the pulpit is not the arena of polit- 
ical debate, and ought never to be diverted from its 
peaceful character to the purposes of secular con- 
troversy, yet is there no such mutual and instinc- 
tive antipathy between the gospel of the Son of 
God, and the great interests of the nation, that these 
interests may not, on some occasions, be befitting 
topics of consideration in the Sacred Desk. Is 
there not rather an obligation on the ministers of 
religion, if there are dangers that threaten the com- 
monwealth, to speak of them ; and, if such there be, 



to speak also of well-grounded hopes in the midst 
of these dangers, and a refuge from them? And 
may not some such view, especially at the present 
crisis, enable us to take a more extended survey of 
the motives to that thankful spirit which our pres- 
ent meeting is designed to express and promote 1 
It is to these two topics, therefore, that I respectfully 
solicit your attention in this discourse — the danger 

AND THE HOPE OP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE j desirOUS 

that both may be appreciated, and that, with a 
heart of fervent gratitude, we may the better ap- 
preciate the composing and inspiriting thought, that 
" God is our refuge and strength, a very present 
help in trouble.'' 

We will, 

I. Direct our thoughts to some of the dangers 
which threaten the American people. 

I say the dangers which threaten the American 
people, because, though it is almost an anomaly in 
the history of the world, the American people, 
in a high sense, constitute the American govern- 
ment. The destiny of this nation is in the hands of 
the people. If we have not good rulers, wholesome 
laws, and a good government, it is the fault of the 
people. The character of the people decides the des- 
tiny of the nation. The institutions and laws of 
most other lands exert an original influence in form- 
ing the national character; while in this land the 
people themselves form the institutions and laws, 
and are influenced by them only as they are the 
creatures of their own making. Nothing is more 
obvious, therefore, than that the social order and 



permanent prosperity of a nation, constituted as our 
own is constituted, are chiefly jeoparded by evils 
which breathe their poison into the elements of so- 
ciety, affect public opinion, and corrupt the mass of 
the people. Other sources of apprehension are 
theoretical, distant, and imaginary ; these are real, 
present, and practical. And among them may be 
specified, 

1. The violence and rancour of the spirit of 
party. 

Of the existence and prevalence of this mis- 
chievous spirit most are conscious ; while by all 
good men it is bitterly bewailed. Men may have 
honest differences of opinion in politics. We 
have no serious fears from these differences, where 
they are founded in principle ; for, where the de- 
signs of men are honest, even though they may 
be mistaken, they rarely suffer themselves to be 
carried beyond the bounds of reason. It is when 
the spirit of party has for its object less worthy 
aims than the great principles of government — is 
not so much the laws of the land as the men 
who shall administer them — not so much the 
country as the party, the pride of power, and the 
honours and immunities of office, that it excites 
apprehension and alarm, and threatens lasting 
evil. Blind passion, hurried and fiery zeal, unhal- 
lowed combinations, false representations, and a 
proselyting spirit, precipitate conduct and reckless- 
ness of consequences, always then mark its charac- 
ter, and show how much it is to be dreaded. 

Such, to a lamentable extent, is the character 
1* 



of the two great political parties that are struggling 
for the mastery in this land. To which of them 
shall we look for a spirit which reason and con- 
science can approve; for an organized system of 
measures which has any other object than to per- 
petuate itself; or for an elevated and disinterested 
policy 7 Which seeks not to sustain itself by the 
same unworthy means that are the reproach of its 
opposers ? Which is the less artful and intriguing ; 
W'hich the less stimulated by the love of office and 
gain; which hesitates the least in aspersing the 
good and applauding the vile ; and which is not in- 
cited by its partisan fury, to courses alike incon- 
sistent with integrity, truth, and honour ; or scruples 
at any thing, so it may carry its point? 

During the first eight years of our national his- 
tory, party politics had comparatively little influ- 
ence either with the government or the people. 
But at the present day, the nation is divided into 
parties from habit. What one party approves, the 
other looks upon with a watchful and jealous eye. 
No man in power, and no aspirant for office ven- 
tures to presume that his opponents may be influ- 
enced by honest principles. It is not a single 
question on which tlie spirit of party exerts its in- 
fluence, but every question ; nor is it a single skir- 
mish or campaign, but a continuous war, and an 
unbroken cannonade. Almost every man in the 
community is marked by his party. There is not 
a ward in our cities, nor a school district in our in- 
terior, but is searched and scoured, in order to 
make out a register of these political combatants^ 



and give them their instructions for the cruel onset. 
I say the cruel onset, because the land bleeds un- 
der it; age, in its retirement, weeps over it ; and 
men in every station, be their present character 
and past services Avhat they may, are the victims 
of its fury. Its influence is felt in the voluntary 
associations of men, that are formed for the purpose 
of doing good ; in the corporations for business and 
profit ; in the institutions of learning, and in the 
church of God. It has more power in our national 
and state councils, than any other principle of ac- 
tion. Men are elevated to the highest oHice, and 
lugged into the lowest, purely for party purposes. 
Where offices are wanting to subserve these ends, 
they are created ; and where they are too many, 
are abolished. Most, if not all the measures of the 
government are devised and adopted with a view 
to party interests ; and the very laws of the land 
which ought always to be framed under solemn 
and religious responsibility, are enacted and re- 
pealed to subserve the same ends. 

Not a few, who are believed to be men of prin- 
ciple on other subjects, seem to take leave of their 
consciences the moment they throw tliciiiselves 
within the sphere of political agitation. Witli ievv 
exceptions, they are chained to their party, and no 
sense even of their sacred religion dissolves the 
bond. There are mournful defections from the law 
of God, in professedly good men of both political 
schools; and they have been a grief of heart to the 
church, and a stumbJiDg-block to the world. It is 
difficult to speak of the paramount influence of 



8 

this party zeal in good men. It is a sort of moral 
hallucination. There are those who seem to be in- 
fatuated by it ; nor is it possible for us to look upon 
this spirit of party, except as a dark cloud in our 
horizon, and one which so overspreads our sky as 
to fill us with apprehension. 

2. Another indication of danger is the pervading 
influence of immoral principle. 

Moral principle is the same thing everywhere. 
It has its standard, and it is unchanging; it has its 
laws, and they have weight and importance enough 
to be controlling. It is not one thing in the Bible 
and another in the Statute Book ; one thing in the 
Church, and another in the State; one thing in tlie 
Pulpit, and another in the Senate Chamber. It is 
the least fickle, and the most unchanging thing in 
the world. In the closet and at the ballot box, 
in the family and on the exchange, in ofiice and out 
of office, it is the same immovable principle. Time, 
place and circumstances cannot alter it. Gold can- 
not bribe it ; poverty cannot ensnare it ; bankruptcy 
can never make it bankrupt. It is not like a vane 
upon the top of a spire, for the purpose of showing 
which way the wind blows ; but like the needle, 
notwithstanding the agitations of the storm, always 
reposing in that point wiiere truth and duty exert 
their magnet power. In matters of indiflerence, it 
is all things to all men ; while on every question of 
truth and rectitude, nothing moves it from its 
straightforward course. Obloquy aims its en- 
venomed shafts at it, but it neither stops nor 
tires. In the even and unruffled course of events, 



it is tranquil ; and if amid more unequal and 
convulsing scenes it frowns and is agitated, it 
is because it is summoning its strength for con. 
flict. Hope cannot make it pliable ; test it as it 
will, fear does but evince its firmness ; and all 
human changes make not half the impression upon 
it which the boisterous sea makes upon the rocky 
shore. 

In political, as well as moral science, moral 
principle is the love of right; the pursuit of truth 
and duty, aiming at the public weal, in distinction 
from individual, or local interests. Every man 
knows what it is, because he has a conscience. It 
is not serving one's self by serving the State ; but it 
is serving the State irrespective of one's self, and it 
may be in opposition to its acknowledged claims. 
It is a principle of amazing power. Other princi- 
ples of action there are, strong and impassioned, but 
this is the highest and most impelling that ever 
swayed the human bosom, because it finds its mo- 
tives and sanction in the indulgence and expression 
of the purest and loftiest affections, and its repose 
in an approving conscience and an approving God. 
It is deeply to be regretted, that it is so much easier 
to tell what it is than where it is. Noble exemplifi- 
cations of it were seen in the early periods of our 
history — more noble than have been seen since the 
day when Moses interceded for the nation of Israel, 
even though his own name were blotted out and 
forgotten among men. But would not the eye be- 
come wearied in searching for them in the modern 
annals of the American people? 



10 

If we look to public stations, where shall 
our thoughts rest for examples of high morality 1 
Tested by a self-sacrificing virtue, how few are 
there that have occupied, or now occupy them, who 
are influenced either by the love of God or man ! 
We may not hope to be a prosperous people, until 
we see a higher tone of moral sentiment imbuing 
our national and state councils, commanding the 
respect of the community, and sending down its 
influence upon all classes of men. When we see 
men occupying public stations, who regard the Holy 
Scriptures with contempt ; trample under their feet 
the divine institutions ; and in their mutual inter- 
course, in halls consecrated to rectitude and cour- 
tesy, act a part that would have disgraced a Vandal 
age ; we cannot but feel some concern, at least, for 
the moral virtue of the community. Irreligion, 
immorality, and bad manners, can scarcely fail to 
contaminate the people, when the contagion de- 
scends from such sources. Iniquity in every form 
always maintains a descending progress. Its natu- 
ral course is downward. liike the foul miasma, 
which first evaporates from low and impure 
grounds and then ascends to spread itself along 
the mountain side, it first ascends from the peo- 
ple to their legislators, and afterwards descends 
in condensed malignity from legislators to the peo- 
ple. The truth on this subject is too humilia- 
ting to be told. Low abuse becomes not high- 
minded men. Malignant and bloody threatening 
ill befits the councils of wisdom. The sacred 
chambers, where the fate of millions hangs in sus- 



11 

pense, are not the arena for profane revilings, per- 
sonal encounter and gladiatorial show. 

If from the private influence of men in public 
stations, we turn to the acts of legislative bodies 
themselves, we see evils too notorious to be denied, 
and too gross to be palliated. In times of excite- 
ment on Questions of great public interest, men can 
be more safely trusted almost anywhere than in 
large deliberative bodies. Those who would recoil 
from dishonour and dishonesty in their individual 
capacity, are too often induced to dismiss this del- 
icacy when their responsibilities become thus 
merged. We have not lived to see a human legis- 
lature decide that thei'e is no God ; but we have 
seen more than one decide, that his laws are of no 
binding force. Never was a law more clearly re- 
vealed, or of more universal obligation, than the 
law which denounces death to the murderer. When 
a state, solemnly and by legal enactment, arrays 
itself before the world against this high authority, it 
manifests an intrepidity which is indicative of any 
thing, rather than moral principle, and which it will 
one day bewail. Laws that siiield the guilty cannot 
protect the innocent. The late Sir James Mcintosh, 
than whom no judge was ever more tender of hu- 
man life, and who has unhappily been referred to 
as advocating the abolition of all capital punish- 
ments, remarks, concerning the morals of India, 
that " such is its disregard for the lives of its 
subjects, that they do not think it worth their while 
to punish a murderer." We may look with a jealous 
eye upon the man who has so little regard to hu- 



12 

man life as to desire the murderer to live. It is the 
pretence of compassion, and dwells not in the bo- 
som of that Being who is the " great and essential 
charity." 

What shall be thought, also, of the modern doc- 
trine of repudiation, adopted by some of the states 
of this Union, and advocated by so many of the 
people 1 It is no marvel, that in the judgment of the 
nations, American is no better than "Punic faith." 
It speaks well for the civilized world, that our for- 
eign ambassadors are put to shame, and that our 
citizens in other lands would fain pass under ano- 
ther name. Had our forefathers been told that the 
time would so soon come, when any of the states of 
this confederation would, by recorded resolutions, 
disavow their own pecuniary engagements, the blush 
of shame would have covered their faces for this 
flagrant injustice, this horrid disgrace of their apos- 
tate descendants. 

Turn now to the character of some portions of 
the public press. That the free expression of pub- 
lic sentiment is necessary to the existence of liberty, 
is an axiom too plain to require either proof or illus- 
tration. Our own goveriunent has wisely adopted 
the policy of extending the privileges of the press to 
the last limits that may comport with individual 
rights and the public safety. We have no Star Cham- 
ber, no High Commission Court, no Inquisition to 
prevent the expression, or suppress the influence of 
public opinion. The character of the press in this 
land is therefore no false exponent of its moral 
principles. This is specially true of the political 



13 

and newspaper press, because this is emphatically 
the press of the people. The people read it, sup- 
port it, and by it their views are both formed 
and expressed. And who does not see, that, to a 
mournful extent, it is under a bad and immoral di- 
rection ; and does more to bring into contempt and 
ridicule the Word of God, to profane the Sabbath 
and cause it to be profaned, to conduct the young 
and the old to scenes of pollution and shame, and 
to corrupt and demoralize the community, even 
than the vilest productions that ever came from 
the pen of Voltaire, or Thomas Paine 1 While it 
would be no proof of candour, indiscriminately to 
denounce it, it would be blindness, not to discover 
the rashness, the precipitancy, the unguarded, and, 
I am sorry to say, the disorganizing influence some- 
times issuing even from those portions of it we 
would most commend. The thought does not al- 
ways seem to be present to the minds of those who 
preside over the newspaper press, that they are ex- 
erting a weighty influence in forming the character 
of the nation, and wielding an engine of unmea- 
sured power, either for weal, or for wo. 

Nor has tiie combined influence of such causes 
as these been exerted without the most deleterious 
effect. We cannot look abroad upon the ijreat 
community of business without seeing most melan- 
choly instances of defection from moral virtue. — 
Men do wrong and defraud, not only with im- 
punity, but almost without dishonour. Defalca- 
tions in public officers and monied institutions come 
crowding upon us week after week, and day after 

2 



14 

day, and are so numerous that it is no easy mat- 
ter to find honest men enough in whom the com- 
munity has confidence, and to whom great and im- 
portant interests may be confided. Men are no 
longer trusted than they are tried ; and even what 
has been considered tried integrity has not always 
proved invuhierable. Promises scarcely excite the 
expectation that they will be fulfilled. There is 
no such thing as mutual confidence. Distrust and 
suspicion so pervade the land, that it is well nigh 
impossible even to equalize its currency. Deceit 
and dishonesty have become so common that they 
are looked for ; and the intercourse between man 
and man, and one remote part of the land and an- 
other, is governed by this horrible jealousy. And 
what is worse, men professing godliness have not 
been altogether guiltless in this matter, nor always 
been sensible that sterling integrity is one of the 
brightest adornments of the Christian character. 

I am not insensible that this is a dark and mel- 
ancholy survey. We are proud of ourlnstitutions ; 
but our Institutions will not long remain what they 
are unless the people become better. The unhap- 
py consequences of such a state of things, if not 
seasonably arrested, may be easily foreseen. Let 
this want of moral principle be continued a little 
longer, and a little farther extended, and we shall 
see property depreciate, because neither individual 
integrity, nor the laws of the land afford it anv ade- 
quate protection. We shall see the unfortunate de- 
pressed, because they have no way of regaining pub- 
lic confidence; the nerves of honourable industry 



15 

paralyzed; the rich hoarding their reiiiaiiiinj;- 
treasures and locking them up from tlie poor ; and 
the poor arrayed against the rich, because they 
are driven to desperation. Men will become unso- 
cial and sellish, malignant anil cruel. JMonied in- 
stitutions will languish; domestic alliances will 
be few ; and crime will be multiplied. Power 
will become right, and law and liberty will be 
trodden down in the streets. The nation will be 
" bankrupt in fortune and in fame ;" and she that 
" was princess among the provinces shall become 
tributary." 

With this want of moral principle, there is, 
3. A growing spirit of insubordination. 
The necessity of civil government is founded in 
the moral corruption of man. Such are the natu- 
ral and strong tendencies of the human mind to 
evil, that no community is safe without a system of 
well-defmed and legalized checks on human conduct- 
To say nothing of the material, the entire intel- 
lectual universe is a governed universe. It has its 
Head, its subjects, its laws, its rewards and pen- 
alties. If we look to celestial existencies, there is 
a difference in natural endowments, a distinction in 
character and condition, by which one class is su- 
perior to another. The harmony, beauty, and hap- 
piness of their social relations depend upon their 
due and cheerful subordination. It is the same in 
this lower world — running through all the grada- 
tions of its social existence, from the family to the 
village, from the village to the state. No commu- 
nity can live without subjection to the " powers 



16 

that be." Their mutual relations forbid it; their 
natural and relative inequality forbid it; and the 
Supreme Lawgiver has made this subjection a sol- 
emn and religious duty. 

There may be, and doubtless is a point beyond 
which submission to oppressive and tyrannical gov- 
ernments may not be extended, and where power 
is so unreasonable and despotic as to justify revolt 
and revolution. Though the most weighty respon- 
sibility rests upon a people in deciding upon this 
fearful crisis, it has existed, and may exist again. 
''Hazardous as the regimen is, the body politic may 
be so disordered in its functions, as to be con- 
strained to resort to it." And when such a crisis 
comes, and patient recourse to legal remedies is 
had in vain, and further remonstrance is useless, a 
good man may bare his bosom to the shock, and re- 
sist unto blood. 

But such an exigency can rarely if ever exist in 
this land. Our tendencies are all on the other side 
of the question ; and make a powerful appeal to 
our honour inbehalf of a respectful obedience to the 
laws. There are peculiar claims on us for subor- 
dination to our constituted authorities, in the very 
freedom of our political Institutions. Our rulers 
are our own, because we choose them. Our laws 
are our own, because we make them ; and our 
Courts of Judicature arc our own, because we ap- 
point them. We are therefore bound to subordina- 
tion by solemn compact. By the act of putting 
our rulers into power, we put ourselves out of pow- 
er; by making our own laws, we bind ourselves to 



17 

be subject to law; and by appointing one class of 
men to be the exclusive expounders, and another 
the exclusive executors of the law, we not only dis- 
claim these high trusts, but pledge ourselves to be 
dutiful to those to whom they are committed. In- 
subordination is far more criminal in this land, than 
in lands where power is wrested from the people, 
rather than conferred by them, and more danger- 
ous, because it is more criminal. 

Thus far in the history of nations, the great con- 
test has, for the most part, had respect to the royal 
prerogatives and the rights of the people. The 
American States have ever been the advocates of 
popular rights, in opposition to the high claims of 
men in power. Our fathers suffered and bled in 
defence of this great political truth ; and we our- 
selves have often listened to the story of its tri- 
umphs, and chanted them at the holiest altars. 
We reproach no man for these generous sentiments, 
because they are our own, and because we hope 
the time may never come when we may not express 
our attachment to them, in perfect consistency 
with our principles of subordination to law and go- 
vernment. But unhappily, men there are, who, 
while they are the uncompromising opposers of 
all needless restraints upon natural liberty, some- 
times call in question those that are needful. It is 
an humbling and an alarming fact, that a uniform 
and rigorous government is in bad repute with the 
people. Insubordination is one of the traits of the 
American character. Scenes have taken place un- 
der our own observation, and in others of our large 

2* 



18 

cities, in which resistance to lawful authority has 
originated in the most trivial causes, and has been 
fostered and perpetuated, sometimes by local inter- 
ests, sometimes by differences of political sentiment, 
and sometimes by questions touching the theory 
of moral obligation. Hence the clamour about the 
rights of man, as paramount to all constitutions 
and compacts. Hence the tumultuous conventions 
sitting in judgment upon the laws, and resolving on 
disobedience. Hence the arraignment and abuse of 
courts of justice. Hence the riots that have called 
forth the power of the civil arm. Hence the angry 
controversy about State Rights in one quarter, and 
the agitating question of Slavery in another; both 
of them menacing revolution and civil war. Hence, 
on the one hand, the bold assumption of the power 
of the law by an infuriated mob, and the illegal 
execution of men for crimes of which they were 
never convicted ; and on the other, the attempts to 
bribe and intimidate the high functionaries of the 
law from executing its penalties after legal sen- 
tence and conviction. And all this too, without 
penalty, and almost without rebuke. Hence the 
clamours of the populace for redress from alleged 
evils by illegal measures, and the recent attempt, 
not without rapine and blood, in one of the states, 
to introduce a new order of things in its govern- 
ment, without regard to constitutional remedies. 
Hence the organized system of opposition to all civil 
authority, under the form of rabid Mormonism, 
everywhere preaching sedition, though baptized 
with the Christian name. And hence too, the spirit 



19 

of misrule in the Church of God, and that turmoil 
which is excited by her discipline, and that want 
of respect to her decisions which makes her the 
laughing-stock of the world. 

These things all flow from one common source, 
and are part and parcel of that unhinging system 
which looses the bonds of public authority. The 
germ of this factious spirit may perhaps be found 
farther back than all are willing to acknowledge. 
It is the natural, though unhealthy growth of our 
free institutions, and is A^ery easily engrafted upon 
them. It is not our courts and officers of justice 
alone that are embarrassed by it, but every parent, 
every teacher, every master mechanic, and every 
seminary of learning. The bonds of authority 
hang loosely around the rising generation, and little 
countenance is given to a rigorous discipline in any 
department of human life. Age, however venerable, 
is not respected, and few " rise up before the face of 
the old man." The absurd doctrine of liberty and 
equality has been so often instilled into the youth- 
ful mind, that the first act of revolt from parental 
government entitles a boy of eighteen to a standing 
among men of spirit and character ; and the first 
contemptuous, declamatory avowal of opposition 
to good laws, and the most flagrant violation of 
the precept, " Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler 
of thy people," is a passport to political advance- 
ment. It is surprising to see how soon the love of 
liberty has degenerated into the spirit of insubor- 
dination. No, it is not surprising; I recall the words. 
Should it surprise us, that children who are taught 



20 

from their boyhood to aim at power, and to look 
to the chair of magistracy, should, in process of 
time, find it no difficult matter to persuade them- 
selves that they liave as much right to govern, as 
to be governed ? Should it surprise us, that when 
you tell men that inequality and subordination are 
doctrines of despots, and that civil power is invest- 
ed in every individual because he is one of the 
people, they are not long in coming to the con- 
clusion that one man has as much right to be the 
judge of the laws, or the ruler of the nation, as 
another'? Multitudes are just foolish enough to 
believe, that civil liberty, so far from being subor- 
dination to good laws, impartially executed, is ex- 
emption from the restraints of all law ; and that 
so far from being a possible thing to be a loyal sub- 
ject and yet be free, it is impossible to be free and 
yet be a loyal subject. 

We tremble for the country when its loyalty 
trembles. We deplore nothing so much as one of 
those fearful crises created by days of trial. Of all 
nations on the earth, our internal peace depends 
upon our prosperity. While the American people 
would meet the fury of an external foe with a uni- 
ted and undaunted spirit, and stand " shoulder to 
shoulder" on the field of battle ; there are turbulent 
spirits among us, who are the fit tools of faction 
the moment the day arrives when, by protracted 
internal embarrassments, they persuade themselves 
that as they have nothing to lose, so they may have 
much to gain by assailing the pillai's of the gov- 
ernment. Far distant be that day ! This disloyal 



21 

spirit is the rock on which the Republic is in dan- 
ger of being shipwrecked. It is but yesterday, and 
she grazed upon its projecting ledges; and even 
now, though thrown ofl" by a favouring tide, we 
feel her heaving and staggering in the fierce eddy 
of its angry waters. 
I will add, 

4. Another ground of apprehension to this land 
is the intluence of the Papal power. 

Facts are stubborn things; and facts have 
transpired in the midst of ourselves and in other 
lands, with regard to the designs of Papal Konie, 
which furnish to all the friends of Protestant free- 
dom in these States, powerful incentives of alarm 
and vigilance. I say nothing now of the religious 
doctrines and rites of the Papal church, Antichrist 
as it is, and ruinous as they are to the souls of men. 
I speak of it simply as a system destructive of civil 
liberty. 

The two great contending powers in the world 
have long been the Papal Hierarchy, and the King- 
doms and States of Protestantism. Such is the 
great contest at the present day. In some respects 
Rome has greatly the advantage, in every stage of 
this controversy, because she is able to turn to good 
account the worst passions of men, and at the same 
time to become the keeper of their consciences. 
Among the mass of human society also, she has lit- 
tle to contend with, because she finds them much 
as she desires to keep them, ignorant, abject, and 
enslaved. While on the other hand. Protestantism 
makes no compromise with wickedness, and instead 



22 

of being satisfied with human servitude, rises only 
as she bears up with her the enshived nations, and 
in every step of her progress, is actually struggling 
with the liberties of the world upon her shoulders. 
With all these disadvantages, Protestantism 
has been on the advance, and until within a few 
years. Papacy has been on the decline. Men are 
rational, and the time must come when they will 
think and examine for themselves. Protestantism 
rests its claims on argument; while Rome, for a 
long period, has abandoned the field of fair discus- 
sion, and, because she has neither argument nor 
arms to sustain her, has recourse only to the pains 
and penalties of her discipline, and ventures into 
the field only under the covered way of her Propa- 
ganda. Protestantism, therefore, has made rapid 
strides within the last hundred years. Besides re- 
taining the whole of Europe north of the Baltic — 
for there is not a Romish priest in Norway or Den- 
mark, and but two in Sweden ;■ — besides maintain- 
ing its overpowering supremacy in Germany, the 
Low Countries, and Switzerland, and being toler- 
ated in Belgium and France ; it has pushed its con-, 
quests into this New World, and through the com- 
bined literature, enterprise, liberty and commerce 
of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, and those of our own land, exerts a com- 
manding influence on the civil liberties of man- 
kind. Our own days have been the witnesses 
of her triumphs, and the degradation of her foe. 
We ourselves have seen the Inquisition abolished ; 
Italy conquered, Rome itself plundered and im- 



23 

poverished, and, strange to say, her presumptuous , 
Pontiff so divested of all temporal power that the 
kings of the earth no longer tremble at the thunder 
of the Seven Hills. 

In view of facts like these, not a few have 
eagerly, and perhaps prematurely come to the con- 
clusion, that Rome has " received her deadly 
wound," and that the time is at hand when both 
" the Beast and the False Prophet shall go to- 
gether into perdition." The prophecies of Daniel, 
it appears to me, do indeed teach us that no Infi- 
del, or Pagan, or Antichristian power is ever again 
to rule over the earth. But while I rejoice in this 
confidence, I have yet to see that there remains not 
a severe and bitter conflict of the Protestant na- 
tions with Rome. It is undoubtedly a fact, that in 
all the Roman Catholic countries, except Italy and 
Spain, the Papal power is on the advance. Pro- 
fessed Protestants of loose and immoral character 
are becoming Catholics ; while conversions to the 
Roman church are taking place among that anom- 
alous multitude who were thrown off from it by the 
influence of Voltaire and the infidelity of the German 
Illuminati. Tliere is also more attachment to the 
Catholic church among her own members than 
there was twenty years ago. As a body of men 
throughout the world, they have been called on by 
the Pope to offer special prayers in behalf of Pro- 
testant countries; and extensive organizations of 
young men have recently been formed in Europe 
for more systematic effort for the conversion of 
the young. Romanism has increasing influence 



24 

• with the government in Catholic countries ; and 
subordinate magistrates are more frequently and 
boldly throwing obstacles in the way of Protest- 
antism. It is well ascertained, that the Catholics 
are resolved on establishing a mission in every 
part of the world where the Protestants have gone 
before them, and are giving more to the cause of 
missions than they have for a long time been wont 
to bestow. In Belgium the whole system of public 
schools is now in the hands of the Catholics; while 
in some of the cantons of Switzerland, they are be- 
ginning to feel their strength, and to meditate plans 
of revolution. In Britain, too, the Oxford heresy 
has made such rapid strides toward Rome, that a 
large body of the evangelical clergy are seriously 
contemplating a secession from the Established 
church ; while in this land where we dwell, pre- 
lates of that church are not wanting who are the 
bold advocates of some of the most obnoxious pre- 
tensions of the Papal church. Nor is it any difficult 
matter to predict what sort of influence a portion 
of the Episcopal church in tiiese States will exert, 
when the crisis comes on which the destinies of 
Protestantism are suspended. 

Nor is this all. While weakness and decay 
are by no means so visible in the features of Rome 
in the Eastern World, as they have been within 
half a century, on this Western Continent she has 
passed the period of her infancy and putting on the 
vigour of manhood. Europe, groaning under an 
overburdened, starving, and tumultuous popula- 
tion, has already disgorged upon these shores such 



25 

a flood of Catholic influence as to be felt in every 
department of the government. And what is mar- 
vellous to tell, though the principles and history of 
Rome show her to be the most aristocratic commu- 
nity in the world, she is here the passionate cham- 
pion of liberty ; and though in her own land, she is 
arrayed in scarlet, she here lays aside her robes for 
the plain garb of republican simplicity. Hitherto 
she has walked softly and silently, and aimed prin- 
cipally at alluring the young. She has felt her 
way, till she finds herself standing on solid ground ; 
and now she is everywhere extending her institu- 
tions, and boldly sending up her voice into our 
legislative councils. 

Especially has she fixed her eye upon that gar- 
den of the world, the " Great West." The plains 
of the Arno and the Tiber she is exchanging for 
the prairies of the Missouri and the Mississippi ; and 
for the native air of her own Pyrenees, Jura, and 
Alps, she is breathing the atmosphere bounded by 
the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains. Through- 
out all that fertile valley, the day of her powder is 
just begun. She has avowed her purpose of pos- 
sessing this promised land ; crowned heads and 
powerful associations are in alliance with her in 
this design ; the popular sentiment of the Catholic 
nations falls in with it ; here her last struggle with 
Protestantism is probably to be maintained, and the 
last battle for freedom and the rights of man to be 
fought. 

We do not say that in these things the Catholics 
are attempting any thing incompatible with their 



26 

civil rights, as recognized by the American people. 
And here is the secret of their strength, and our 
danger. The laws of the land deny them nothing 
as citizens; while what is cheerfully awarded to 
them as citizens, they make use of only as Roman- 
ists. Nay more. Not satisfied with the same civil 
rights we ourselves enjoy, they are already claiming 
immunities which the laws give to no other denom- 
ination, and making these claims the rallying stand- 
ard of their political influence. While we, as Pro- 
testants, are exhausting our energies against one 
another, theirs are concentrated in favor of Rome. 
In the political dissensions of Protestants, Rome 
even now holds the balance of power; and in the use 
of the elective franchise, may decide every great po- 
litical question, and almost upon her own terms. And 
■who can be so demented as to suppose that these 
terms will not be available to the Roman See 1 
Do any ask. Where is the danger of all this 1 T 
can only say, the question surprises me. Are not 
the liberties of the country put in jeopardy by a 
community which affirms that the Pope possesses 
the divine right of civil government ; that faith is 
not to be kept with Protestants ; that a Protestant 
cannot be witness ; and that the oath of allegiance to 
any other power than the Romish Hierarchy is not 
binding 1 These are principles which Rome 
avows by the decrees of her Popes and Councils, 
and which she has, I know not whether to say, the 
weakness or the effrontery, to pronounce infalli- 
ble. And because she pronounces them infallible, 
they are paramount w ilh every Romanist, in what- 



27 

ever land he is found. Believe it or not, as we 
may, Papists will be found true to the doctrine of 
infallibility. Any other doctrine is fatal to their 
system. What were once the principles of t!)at 
apostate community are now its principles, nor do 
we need to be informed that they have ever proved 
unfriendly to personal rights, and the equal admin- 
istration of law and justice. We cannot be hood- 
winked by smooth professions against the subtle 
invasions of such political heresy. Human nature 
is the same now which it always has been ; and so 
is Popery. Principles are not such tame and inert 
things as they are sometimes regarded ; they mould 
the spirit, form the designs, control the conduct, and 
constitute the character. You cannot separate 
them from the man, any more than you can tear 
asunder the man from himself We are greatly de- 
ceived, if it is possible for a man to be a thorough 
Papist, and, in any great conflict of civil liberty 
with the Roman church, prove himself the friend of 
freedom. Individual Catholics there have been in 
the midst of us, whose hearty allegiance to the Papal 
Hierarchy is more than doubtful, who have showed 
themselves freemen ; and there are such in the 
midst of us still. But as a class of men. Papists 
are at the bidding of their Priests, and their 
Priests at the bidding of Rome. 

I once heard the question agitated by a compa- 
ny of very intelligent men, whether the system of 
caste in India, or the policy of Rome, were the mas- 
ter-piece of the great adversary. And very prop- 
erly, as it seemed to me, the question was decided 



28 

in favor of Rome. The designs of Rome are not 
limited to a single empire, but include the race un- 
der every parallel of latitude, and every form of 
government. Her stake is deep. Her game is high ; 
and she is playing for nations. She spreads her 
great drag-net over the marshes and miry places 
of the earth, and gathers all manner of creeping 
things; and then she throws it over crowns and 
thrones. She aims chiefly at controlling human 
governments. She has her spies at every Court, and 
every University in Europe, and almost every 
town of the Hanseatic Confederacy ; nor is there a 
treaty, nor any measure of universal interest, but 
she watches it with a jealous eye. 

One access to power in this land she has, and 
only one. And it is that avenue, w^hich like the 
breach in the wall of Jerusalem discovered by Ti- 
tus, invites the destroyer, and shows him a divided 
people. The policy of Rome is the very machinery 
which the demon of Party in the midst of us de- 
sires, in order to bring about those gradual changes 
in principle and legislation which will sti-ike a fa- 
tal blow at our liberties. And though its influence 
is gradual, it is strong. It is like the first movings 
of the avalanche, and wo be to all beneath it. It 
is first like the smoke, and then like tlie lava of its 
own Vesuvius, burning over the rich and beautiful 
soil, and leaving not a green spot for the blasted 
trunk of freedom to stand upon. In a little while, 
without a more concerted union of Protestant influ- 
ence, the evil Ave prognosticate will have done its 
work, There will be no antidote to the mischief. 



29 

The thought and eloquence of the Senate Cham- 
ber cannot arrest it; the Press cannot arrest it; 
the Pulpit will be silenced ; and the Bible, as it 
recently has been, Avill be consigned to the flames. 
Nay, though it is adding lamentation upon lamen- 
tation, the evil is in a measure even now done. — 
A free people already accept their suffrages at the 
altars of the Papacy, and the Empire State, so jeal- 
ous of its own Clergy, pays its homage at St. Pe- 
ter's. If we wake not Rome carries the day. The 
Republic is lost. 

Such are some of the dangers which threaten 
the American people. Nor may we dwell any 
longer on the dark shades of this sombre outline. 
It will be a relief to your minds, as I am sure it is to 
my own, to call your attention, 

II. To the refuge from these dangers, and to 
some of the grounds of hope for the nation, notwith- 
standing these threatening evils. 

On this part of our subject, I have no systems 
of human policy, no counsels of human wisdom to 
unfold. Creatures are of little account at such a 
day as this. " Cursed is the man that trusteth in 
man, and maketh flesh his arm." We shall not 
find trees planted by the rivers of water, amid the 
Iteath of the desert. The storm that lowers over 
the land is not to be averted by the ingenuity, or 
power of man. If the destruction of this nation 
does not swell the catalogue of ruined Republics, 
it will be because " God is our refuge and strength, 
a very present help in trouble." We look around 
us, and every day is a day of disappointment to 

3* 



30 

thousands. Human events are constantly taking a 
new and unexpected turn ; and the man that 
knows not, feels not, rejoices not that God is on the 
throne, may see the hand of enchantment which 
his imagination has depicted lighting up our pros- 
pects, only inscribing our doom. And yet are 
there indices to hope, hope in the God of nations, 
because, 

1. This great and good Being possesses all the 
resources that are adequate to our security and ad- 
vancement. 

In a day, when so few think of God, and when 
the high and mighty of this world forget that he 
ruleth in the midst of the earth, it is an unutterable 
consolation to know that no time and no place limits 
his dominion. His ever Avakeful eye is upon every 
change of human affairs ; and nothing is concealed 
or undirected by him, that takes place among men, 
or that is projected by the machinations of human 
folly and wickedness. If a partisan spirit in- 
flames the minds of the people ; if the land is threat- 
ened with a deluge of immoral principles ; if turbu- 
lence and faction roar around us like the Avaves of 
the sea ; if unhallowed conspiracies, baptized with 
the Christian name, menace our liberties ; it is with 
Him to stay the flood, to still the tumult of the 
people, to restrain the spirit of party, and to pre- 
serve and perpetuate our dearest interests against 
the encroachments of the intriguing foe. 

Never, since the struggles of the Revolution, did 
the American people more need the interposition of 
almighty and benevolent Providence, than at the 



31 

present day. The nation has reached a crisis in 
"which she requires connnanding intellect to influ- 
ence her counsels, and more commanding virtue to 
concentrate her confidence. It is not at all improb- 
able, from tlie signs of the times, that influences 
hitherto unfelt are about to be exerted on our des- 
tinies ; that old combinations are about to be dis- 
solved, and new ones formed, and principles of 
policy adopted that may unite this nov^^ disunited 
republic in their true interests. And who, but 
the God who is above us, is able to show us 
what these true interests are, or amalgamate and 
combine the jarring views, and more jarring pas- 
sions of this great and free people? What measures 
he will mercifully disclose we do not know ; it is 
a relief to know that he is able to adopt those that 
shall result in our security and honour. The ten 
thousand springs of thought and action that are 
now at work throughout this wide territory, may as 
easily be arranged and directed by him to our good, 
as the pliant willow is bent by the gentle breeze. 
And if to the eye of reason this appears improbable, 
there are other eyes to Avhich it is the only preven- 
tive of our ruin. 

2. With God alone are the means by which these 
resources may be made available to the nation. 

These means, in few Avords, are the moral virtue 
of the people. The evils we fear can be counteracted 
only by this influence ; nor is there but this refuge 
from the ruin of our national character and hopes. 

It can scarcely be necessary to say, that 
it is vain to look for moral principle among any 



32 

people, without religious principle. The character 
that is essential to national prosperity is engrafted 
upon the religion of the Bible. Nothing else can 
govern the wayward mind, and impetuous passions 
of the human heart. Free institutions cannot do it ; 
a wholesome legislation cannot do it ; and no ad- 
vanced state of the sciences and the arts can do it. 
Free institutions are nothing but a curse where the 
religion of the Bible is wanting. The best code of 
laws is of little avail where there are not integrity 
and virtue in the people to sustain them ; nor with- 
out that virtue and integrity, is it possible for good 
laws to be enacted. And we must be slow to learn, 
if we have not seen that progress in arts and 
sciences, unattended with religious influence, only 
renders men more inventive in wickedness. Poli- 
ticians have not been slow to appreciate the influ- 
ence of false religions ; but, with few exceptions, 
they have never given the religion of the Bible its 
appropriate place. 

In nations, as well as in men, moral virtue 
is of divine original. But for the truth and 
Spirit of God, it would find no access to the coun- 
sels that control the destiny of nations, no resi- 
dence in our world. Speculative atheism, and prac- 
tical ungodliness, bad faith and bad morals are 
everywhere rife, from men in power to meaner men, 
where a community is not under the restraining, 
subduing influence of the truth of God and the 
Spirit of his grace. The God of heaven must give 
these to the American people, else are they far bet- 
ter fitted to be portioned out as the vassals of some 



33 

feudal lord, than to be the responsible citizens of a 
free government. 

The American people, perhaps more than any 
other nation, requires the strong grasp of religious 
trutli. Tiiey are not as easily excited as some na- 
tions, but they are exposed to strong and powerful 
excitement. We cannot rely upon any safety valve 
to let off the steam when once it is up. Our safety 
lies in keeping down, and controlling the fires with- 
in, or the colossal machinery will burst, and piece 
after piece of the mighty fabric Avill fall. We are 
just the people, fitted for revolutions of no common 
kind, unless we are bound together into one great 
brotherhood by the cords of heaven-descended truth 
and a heaven-imparted love. 

The hope of the American people therefore is in 
the free and glorified course of God's truth ; dis- 
tributed in the Bible, proclaimed from the pulpit, 
published in an elevated and sanctified literature, far 
off and near, and to all ages and orders of men. 
It is in the lives of true men, pure men, honest 
men, self-denying men, whose example and in- 
fluence are more persuasive than all the eloquence 
of the press, or the pulpit. It is in the piety of 
churches and families, and in the purity and reli- 
gious character of our public schools and colleges. 
It is in the voice of truth and godliness uttered in 
the halls of legislation, and revered on the bench 
of justice. There is a power in the truth of God, 
thus disseminated, and demonstrated thus, to re- 
novate the nation. It " drops as the rain, and dis- 
tils as the dew ; as the small rain upon the tender 



34 

herb ; and as showers upon the grass." Like 
the humid atmosphere of the Spring, it insinuates 
itself into every tree, and plant, and leaf, and fila- 
ment; and prepares it for the Sun of righteousness 
when he rises with healing in his beams ; and like 
the prophetic waters that went out from Jerusalem, 
" giving life to every thing that moveth wherever 
they come." 

Heaven give us his truth and Spirit, and the land 
is safe. The resources of his providence and grace 
are then our own. We shall be the proper subjects 
for freedom, and not only endure our liberties, but 
beckon to distant lands to come and rest under 
the shadow of our wings. 

To make this hope more welcome, I remark, — 

3. These resources, and these means, by which 
they are made available, are controlled by prayer. 

There are those who may smile when I utter 
this thought. But we may not abandon our hopes 
for the nation, for the sneers of men who have 
never made the living God their refuge. 

Scattered and divided to her own weakness 
and shame, as the church is in this land ; called 
by a thousand names, and the reproach and con- 
tumely of the nation for her sectarian collisions 
and mutual jealousies ; she, nevertheless, comprises 
within her different compartments a great multi- 
tude who fear God and love his Son. Were it but 
for their own peace and comfort, in the present 
aspect of the nation, they may well greet the in- 
vitation, " Come, my people, enter into thy cham- 
bers, and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself 



35 

for a little season, until the indignation be over- 
past." It is an vmutterable privilege to know that 
our refuge is in God ; to retire from these external 
commotions ; to be more with Him and less with 
the world, until the storm is gone by. In days 
when men's hearts " are failing them for fear," 
there is a safety in this calm retreat which the 
ephemeral convulsions of time cannot disturb. 

But it is not to their own peace and comfort 
alone, that this thought addresses itself Prayer 
possesses untold power. It has been beautifully 
said, " It moves the hand that moves the world." 
It can accomplish any thing, because he who 
hears and answers it can accomplish any thing. 
It is omnipotent for good, because God is omni- 
potent. The men of prayer cannot indeed form 
the character of this land, and direct its policy as 
they please ; they cannot reform its manners, nor 
protect it against those internal causes of decay, 
of such dark foreboding ; and they are equally 
powerless to evangelize it by the omnipotence of 
truth. But the only power in the universe that is 
adequate to these results is accessible to their 
humble and unwearied supplications. Sodom and 
the cities of the plain might have remained to this 
day, had they contained ten men of prayer. Israel 
would have been blotted out from being a nation 
on the day they bowed before the golden calf, but 
for the prayers of a single man. But for the en- 
treaties of her suppliant prince, Jerusalem had 
been desolated by the destroying angel, centuries 
before she was devoured by the Roman eagle, 



36 

Nor let it be forgotten that the greatest moral re- 
formation that ever took place among men, and 
one that triumphed over the darkness of paganism, 
the philosophy of the schools, and the opposing 
power of human governments, and that is destined 
to renovate the race ; began in the prayers of one 
hundred and twenty persons, once assembled in an 
upper chamber in the capital of Judea. 

It is no easy matter to ruin a country protected 
by prayer. France and Britain have now, and long 
have had, sins enough upon their governments, to 
have sunk them both like a millstone into the sea, 
but for the supplications of a chosen people in the 
midst of them. So has it been with this land. 
Judgments that were even at our doors, within 
your recollection and mine, have been often de- 
layed by the intercessions of God's people, and by 
those days of prayer when the nation bowed in 
sackcloth, and her priests stood between the porch 
and the altar, and cried, " Spare thy people, O 
God, and give not thine heritage to reproach." 

Our fathers called upon God and he heard 
them. Their early history is full of affecting in- 
stances of the power of prayer. When they were 
hungry, they looked to Him who hears the ravens 
when they cry, and He fed them. They buried 
the tomahawk ; they quenched the flames ; they 
staid the floods by prayer. They vanquished 
armies, and made proud Sachems tremble on their 
thrones. They unlocked the heavens to the wonder 
of the adoring savage, who turned from tlie vani- 
ties of the heathen to Him who maketh rain. And 



37 

what is morC) they subdued the pride and arro- 
gancyof man, and controlled his spirit, and chang- 
ed his counsels by prayer. Prayer can accomplish 
for this land, what the wisdom of her statesmen 
and the prowess of her arms can never accomplish. 
" The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and 
the weakness of God is stronger than men." Prayer 
made the nation what it was in the zenith of her 
prosperity; and it must still have a place, among 
those great moral causes which fix the destiny of 
nations, in restoring and perpetuating its depare d 
glory. 

Were this the " Age of Prayer," it would not be 
an age of such foreboding. Were every closet and 
every domestic altar, every sanctuary, and the ten 
thousand circles for prayer throughout the church- 
es of every name, engaged in intercessions for the 
land we love ; our fears would be tranquillized, and 
our hopes have unwonted cheerfulness and joy. 
The shadow of the cloud would still coA^er us by 
day, and the pillar of fire by night would direct our 
course. It is because the God of heaven has a peo- 
ple here whom he lives to protect and love, that we 
still have a name and a place on the earth. And if 
this agitated and disheartened nation should be suf- 
ficiently awake to her dangers and her hopes to be 
brought to their knees, all will be well. 

I may not close without adding another thought, 
and one which gives interest and emphasis to all 
that has been uttered. It is, 

4. That in the development of his purposes 
thus far toward the American people, there are rea- 

4 



38 

sons for the hope that the God of heaven will not 
abandon us. 

I do not stand in this place as the apologist for my 
country's sins. I know that she deserves to be aban- 
doned to the unnatural crime of being the author of 
her own destruction, and lamenting, too late, the 
fearful deeds of guilt and horror which her own 
hands have perpetrated. Should we be more se- 
verely chastised than we have been, we may well 
accept the punishment of our iniquity in uncom- 
plaining silence ; and should we fall under the 
exterminating sentence of the avenging Deity, it 
would be but another lesson to the world, that " ver- 
ily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." 
There maybe those who anticipate such a fall; 
but with all my fears, and notwithstanding the 
dangers which menace such a disaster, my own 
bosom is slow to sympathize with these trembling 
apprehensions. 

The providence of God planted in this New 
World a noble vine. He " sifted three kingdoms, 
that he might sow the American wilderness with the 
choicest wheat." There was nothing fortuitous in 
the early settlement of the American colonies; but 
every thing that indicated, on the part of a benevo- 
lent Providence, a far-reaching design. In the attach- 
ment of the noble men engaged in this enterprise to 
the great principles of civil and religious liberty; for 
their intelligence, learning and piety, it would be dif- 
ficult to find their equals in the same number of men 
among their descendants. It was not a nursling, 
that was transplanted on these shores, a feeble scion, 



39 

but a full grown tree ; and though the clouds have 
gathered above it, and its branches have been often 
scathed by the storm, the tears of men watered it, 
it was nurtured by the prayers of the holy, and 
blood, of which the w^orld was not worthy, enrich- 
ed its roots as they struck deep into the rocky 
soil. Tell me, ye sons and daughters of the Pil- 
grims, if, even now, when the tempest lowers, the 
decree is not written in heaven, " Destroy it not, 
for a blessing is in it T' 

The prosperity of the American people has 
also, with a few short intermissions, been unexam- 
pled. Scarcely a hundred years have passed away, 
since France and Britain claimed the possession of 
the North American Continent, while within a much 
shorter period, the larger half of these United States 
was the uninvaded habitation of savage men. — 
But the dense forest is now covered over with 
the abodes of wealth and splendor ; and a 
large and growing empire, studded with the 
lights of religion and science, takes the place of 
the benighted and retiring tribes of Paganism, who 
have left a land emulating in its resources the 
richest poi'tions of the older hemisphere, and com- 
prising a population of nearly twenty millions of 
freemen. 

The apparent objects of our existence as a 
nation, have also for the most part stood abreast 
withour prosperity. Here the oppressed of every 
land have found a home, where they have en- 
joyed the rewards of honest industry, the allure- 
ments of knowledge, and the protection of law. 



40 

The English Dissenter, the Scottish Covenanter, 
and the polished Huguenot, chased by edicts 
that shed blood to the horses' bridles, have here 
reposed in fearless tranquillity, and transmitted 
the savour of their honoured name to a long line 
of honoured descendants. And here too, the out- 
cast Jew, of whom the God of Abraham has said, 
" I will undo all that afflict thee," has found, 
what no nation on the earth besides gives 
him, unobstructed access to every civil immuni- 
ty and religious privilege, and, if a native citizen, 
to the highest offices in the gift of the people. — 
Here the pure and undefiled religion of the cross 
has been established, and its sacred institutions 
honoured by law, in distinction from every form of 
Paganism, Mohammedanism, and the national and 
temporary ritual of the Levitical Code. Here the 
Holy Spirit has been largely and frequently poured 
from on high : and from this young world, as 
one of the selected centres of light and love, the an- 
gel having the everlasting go&pel to preach to them 
that dwell on the earth has gone forth to almost 
every unevangelized land. 

Throughout all our history, too, there have been 
such special interpositions of the divine power and 
goodness, as have not only been the subject of 
grateful admiration to ourselves, but the wonder of 
the observant nations. Many a time have we been 
in great perplexity and alarm. The rivers where we 
have bathed in our boyhood, and the green glades 
which we have trodden in earlier years, have been 
the scenes of terrific collisions with the inefciless, 



41 

savages of the desert ; and though the faith of the 
nation is far from being preserved pure and untar- 
nished toward their descendants, these scenes have 
passed away, and the war-whoop sounds its battle 
cry no more. We have also been conducted Avith 
safety and honour through one war with France, 
and two with Great Britain, in one of which the 
inequality of the parties was such as gave us no 
hope of success. At the commencement of this 
conflict, we had neither an organized regiment, nor 
a fortified town, nor a ship of war, nor money, nor 
arms, nor military stores. The researches of Brit- 
ish literature and science, the extent of her com- 
merce, the wisdom of her counsels, and her diplo- 
matic skill, her abundant wealth, her far-famed 
jurisprudence, and the extent of her dominions, 
gave her the most enviable pre-eminence, and 
made her the terror of Europe. Such was her 
prowess in arms, that she had never been con- 
quered in a single war since the days of William 
the Norman. But the bitter conflict was sustained 
for seven long years ; two entire armies of the ene- 
my captured, and our Independence achieved. And 
if, in looking back upon our triumph, we are tempt- 
ed to give way to the thought, that it encircles the 
brow of this infant Republic with a more verdant 
wreath than ever entwined the helmet of her ex- 
acting foe in the proudest days of Marlborough, or 
Wellington, we may not withhold the honour from 
Him who ruleth among the children of men, and 
by this great event, destined the American people 

to an enduring place among the nations. He 

4* 



42 

"turned our captivity as the streams of the south;" 
and has not only given us honour and renown, but 
extorted them even from the lips of our enemies. 
It is but little more than two centuries since our 
fathers found a home in this western wilderness ; 
and now Britain herself has acknowledged before 
the world, that " their children constitute the most 
intelligent, and the most Christian Republic in the 
world." 

Nor ought it to be forgotten that the providence 
of God has often interposed when we were threat- 
ened with destruction from causes within ourselves. 
Scarcely were the struggles of the Revolution over, 
and the smoke of its burning disappeared in a clear 
sky, when internal dissensions threatened us with 
deeper horrors. Difficulties presented themselves 
in the organization of our Federal Government. 
The most powerful minds in the land were brought 
into anxious collision, and conflicting interests 
seemed for a while to forbid the hope that we 
should ever be a united people. And many, a 
time, too, since this great question was amicably 
determined, we have been exposed to all the hor- 
rors of a civil war, and but for an invisible guard- 
ianship, " blood had touched blood." "^ -^ was a 
period in our history, also, when infidv [ a-eat- 
ened to overwhelm us, and the false and latitudina- 
rian philosophy of Europe seemed about to lay 
waste the superstructure which liad been reared for 
distant generations, But the God of our fathers 
bowed his heavens, and by the remarkable inter- 
position of his Spirit, lifted up a standard against 



43 

the enemy. And since our own times, a foe scarce- 
ly less to be dreaded, has secretly, and with almost 
I'esistless power, been undermining the foundations 
of our prosperity. The time was, when the nation 
seemed to be becoming a nation of drunkards. In- 
temperance was swallowing us up in its consuming 
flood. Its streams flowed ; its fires raged, and were 
burning over the land. But the God of heaven 
had decreed that Ave should not so soon become a 
lo.st nation. The Temperance Reformation is a 
movement unexampled in the history of the world ; 
and in the view of the most enlightened nations, 
does the country greater honour than all her vic- 
tories. 

And what means the clarion sound of that sil- 
ver trumpet, which the men of peace have just 
blown through the length and breadth of two great 
Christian nations, filling every generous and be- 
nevolent bosom with joy 1 We had trembled in 
apprehension of a conflict that would have made 
havoc of the lives of men ; that would have blight- 
ed the fruits of industry ; that would have arrested 
the progress of knowledge and charity by the din 
of arms ; that would have made both nations worse, 
and no the better ; and that could not have 

failed . . ^st the advancement of true religion in 
the world, and left an indelible reproach upon the 
Christian name. But he who sitteth King forever, 
has blessed the land with peace. " It is the Lord's 
doing, and it is mai'vellous in our eyes." 

I may not enlarge on this part of my subject, 
Msny a time have we stood on the brink of a pre- 



44 

cipice, when the hand of the Omnipotent Pre- 
server has been reached forth to keep us from fall- 
ing. God himself has " brought us out into a large 
and wealthy place." He has watched over us; 
guarded us as tlie apple of his eye ; and " having ob- 
tained help of him, we continue to the present day." 
Come see the works of the Lord. " Unto thee, O 
God, do we give thanks ; unto thee do we give 
thanks ; for that thy name is near, thy wondrous 
works declare." 

And now we ask, in the language of one of 
other times, " If the Lord had been pleased to de- 
stroy us, would he have showed us such things as 
these 1" Has he been wont to do so to those whom 
he has thus distinguished 1 Is there no reason to 
hope, that the moral causes to which he has given 
an impulse in this land, and which he is still direct- 
ing, have not as yet finished the work which he 
has given them to do ? Are there no streaks of 
light in our horizon, and no bright signs of the 
times, notwithstanding all the darkness? And 
may not the day of mercy be dawning upon our 
world, and the predicted period of Zion's glory be 
too near, for this land to be abandoned of God and 
destroyed 1 

If these things are so, nothing may dissuade us 
from our hope in God for the American people. The 
resources that are necessary to our security and ad- 
vancement are treasured up in him ; with him are 
the means by which they may be made available 
to ourselves ; these means and these resources are 
under the control of prayer ; while in the develop- 



45 

nient of his purposes thus far toward us as a people, 
there are strong reasons for hoping that he will 
still regard us with mercy. 

Such, my respected auditors, are the dangers, 
and such the hopes of the American people. If as 
a people we appreciate them both, and act consist- 
ently under their influence, our hopes will far out- 
weigh our fears. Let us appreciate them, and let us 
so conduct ourselves ! Let us do this, and demor- 
alizing principles will no longer exult in the inac- 
tion of the virtuous ; insubordination will cower 
before the majesty of law ; and Rome will no lon- 
ger triumph, because her strength lies in the divis- 
ion and inertness of Protestants. The land will no 
longer tremble with schisms of such an alarming 
aspect, but animosities will be allayed, and divis- 
ions healed. The zeal of party spirit will become 
cool, and that phrensy will abate which makes so 
many blind to the dangers which threaten us. We 
shall be clothed with the dignity, the beauty, the 
adornment, the strength of that spirit of mutual for- 
bearance and conciliation, which will be the conso- 
lation of our friends, the defeat of our enemies, and 
approved by Heaven. The God of peace will cause 
his favour to rest upon us " as the dew of Hermon, 
and as the dew that descended upon the moun- 
tains of Zion." Instead of following the fate of 
lost republics, we shall remain a monument to 
succeeding ages that " God is our refuge and 
strength." From lofty towers of Zion, every- 
where planted over this Western World, the 
lips of our children and their children, long after 



46 

yours and mine shall have mouldered in the dust, 
shall say to this chosen land, " The Lord bless thee, 
O habitation of justice and mountain of holiness !" 
and the thanksgivings which we offer in his courts 
to-day, and for which we have such abundant 
cause, will be perpetuated by future times, and other 
men will take up the Hallelujah Chorus, and " fall 
down and worship Him that liveth forever and 
ever." 



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